Flemish (born in Germany), 1527–1590

Portrait of Johann Neudörfer the Elder, 1560

oil on panel

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Nicolas Neufchatel was one of several Flemish Protestant artists who fled the religious upheavals in the Low Countries to settle in the thriving city of Nuremberg, Germany, in the mid-sixteenth century. He later became one of the city’s leading portrait painters. In the WAG picture, Neufchatel has captured the likeness of the German mathematician and cartographer Johann Neudörfer the Elder. In a brightly lit side view, Neudörfer is shown taking measurements with a compass in his right hand, his downward gaze fixed on the task. Likely used for commemorative purposes, the painting features the family crest in the upper-left corner and an epitaph in the right confirming the mathematician’s death in 1563 at the age of 66.